AN: Hi there! After reading the Twilight Saga and seeing the first movie, I needed more Twilight. I started reading fan fics in January of 2009 and immediately fell in love. This is my first fan fic ever and I'd love to know what you think. Thanks!

Disclaimer: I don't own anything!!

Sly as a cat, he slinks in the dark space. An odd thing- relishing the cold darkness. A vampiric existence, if ever there was one. His world, this curse, has taught him lonely lessons in survival.

A familiar beat, a thrumming noise, a steady rhythm seep into his mind. Knowing what comes next, he tried unsuccessfully to shut out the intrusion.

Two syllables. Two syllables to which he is bound. Two syllables he has come to resent.

Running a hand through his hair, down the scruff of his unshaven face, he let out a deep sigh. No chance of evading it now.

Thrumming, beating, syllables grow louder, stronger, faster. They haunt him wherever he goes, suckling what poor excuse for a soul he has left.

Why was I never given a choice for this life? The brooding figure asked himself.

He splashed water over his face- a last cry to wake him from this prison- and glanced at his reflection with extreme disinterest.

Thrumming, beating, syllables crying.

Walking over to the door, he gently rapped his forehead against the wood and opens the barrier. One step and the delicate film between chaos and calm would be gone.

Two syllables now a steady screech in the air.

One step.

He stood on the ledge under the sign that so wickedly mocked him. The action alone vaulted the sea into a dangerous storm. As if they need more.

"Ed-ward! Ed-ward! ED-WARD!!!" The sea screamed at his face, enforcing his bindings, tying him tight.

Placing a careful smile on his face, he waved to the abyss and stepped out and away from the sign which so boldly read EDWARD CULLEN.

Turning back, the trailer looked like a palace- an oasis to a man dying of thirst. Hands in his hair, he turned his back on the palace and began his march through the sea.

Bella

"Well, this is home!"

"Wow, it's even bigger then I imagined it would be. I feel like such a thief."

I looked around the space that was to be my home for the next year at least. Moving New York was one of the scariest and most invigorating decisions I'd ever made. My home in Forks, Washington wasn't even a blip on the radar screen compared to this city. Regardless, I loved my home and almost reconsidered my new life more than once this summer. I bet there were more people living in two blocks of my apartment than the population of Forks.

"Yeah I know it's still tight but, hey, that's NYC, right?! I couldn't find anything bigger on our budget." Angela, my roommate and fellow Forks High survivor, laughed. We both knew very well neither one of us could afford this place. Turns out, Angela's grandma liked to invest in real-estate and had a two bedroom in Greenwich Village she so willingly offered to us for a serious steal on rent. I felt bad about taking it for so little, but anyone who had a grandma knows they don't take no for an answer. We took the deal on the condition that we would both have jobs within two weeks.

Angela and I were fast friends when I moved to Forks my junior year of high school. Charlie, my father, was the Chief of Police, and hers the pastor of the local church--so we bonded over the common feeling of always being watched. After I decided to trek cross-country to Columbia University, she was majorly supportive and helped me plan for any sticky situation. She even sat with me while I told Charlie. And when she went thru a devastating break up with Ben, I insisted she come with me.

The weekend she was accepted was one of the best memories I have of Forks.

Now that the moment was here, I couldn't begin to imagine doing this on my own.

We took the rest of the day to set up our things in the apartment. By some miracle, we each had a room with a door. Before accepting this place, it seemed we'd have to do the old "hang a blanket" routine for privacy--thank you, Grammy Weber!! Every wall (apart from the bedrooms) in our place was brick and two rather nice windows lit the place in sunlight. That will save us on electricity bills. Speaking of which, would it be too much to go job hunting today? Relax, Bella. You just got here. For safety, every visitor had to be buzzed in, and Fort Knox had nothing on our apartment door.

Charlie liked that part.

I made a mental note to start the job hunt tomorrow. There certainly was an abundance of variety here. Forks had about three options for high school job-hunters: Wendy's, Wal-Mart, or Thriftway.

That night, we made popcorn and lemonade and talked about our new lives as not-so-city girls.